236 cook's first voyage I769. 



ferior race of deities, whom they call Eatuas. Two 

 of these Eatuas, they say, at some remote period of 

 time, inhabited the earth, and were the parents of 

 the first man. When this man, their common ancestor, 

 was born, they say that he was round like a ball, but 

 that his mother, with great care, drew out his limbs, and 

 having at length moulded him into his present form, 

 she called him Eothe, which signifies Ji7iished. That 

 being prompted by the universal instinct to pro- 

 pagate his kind, and being able to find no female 

 but his mother, he begot upon her a daughter, and 

 upon the daughter other daughters for several gene- 

 rations, before there was a son ; a son, however, 

 being at length born, he, by the assistance of his 

 sisters, peopled the world. 



Besides their daughter Tettowmatatayo, the first 

 progenitors of nature had a son, whom they called 

 Tane. Taroataihetoomoo, the supreme deity, they 

 emphatically style the causer of earthquakes ; but 

 their prayers are more generally addressed to Tane, 

 whom they suppose to *take a greater part in the 

 affairs of mankind. 



Their subordinate deities, or Eatuas, which are 

 numerous, are of both sexes : the male are wor- 

 shipped by the men, and the female by the women ; 

 and each have Morais to which the other sex is not 

 admitted, though they have also Morais common to 

 both. Men perform the office of priest to both 

 sexes, but each sex has its priests, for those who 

 officiate for one sex, do not officiate for the other. 



They believe the immortality of the soul, at least 

 its existence in a separate state, and that there are 

 two situations of different degrees of happiness, some- 

 what analogous to our heaven and hell : the superior 

 situation they call Tavirua Verai, the other Tiahoboo. 

 They do not, however, consider them as places of 

 reward and punishment, but as receptacles for dif- 

 ferent classes ; the first, for their chiefs and principal 

 people, the other for those of inferior rank, for 



